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Saturday, May 18, 2002

By Joe Smydo, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A Washington County man who told a Social Security official that his wife may have died in the World Trade Center attack was found dead yesterday inside his trailer by authorities who were increasingly suspicious of his story.

County Coroner S. Timothy Warco ruled Edward Young, 60, of Long Branch, died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

But the whereabouts of his wife, Agnes Ann Young, 59, remain a mystery.

Family members said they had not seen Agnes Young for at least 10 years. During that time, Edward Young has told relatives who wanted to see her that she was unavailable or in mental institutions.

But he couldn't fool the Social Security Administration.

The story of Agnes Young's disappearance began to unravel in September when Edward Young applied for Social Security disability benefits, affidavits state. His request triggered an automatic review of the disability benefits already being paid to his wife.

Social Security officials scheduled a meeting with him and his wife. But Edward Young arrived for the Sept. 21 appointment without her and told a caseworker his wife left home earlier that month with a friend for a trip to the Empire State Building in New York City and perhaps died in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Suspicious of Young, who never filed a missing persons report, Social Security officials started a fraud investigation that eventually led the agency to request help from the state police. Meanwhile, Social Security granted Edward Young disability benefits but terminated his wife's.

A Social Security investigator, Special Agent Leroy Grafton, visited Young in March. Young refused to let Grafton into the house and told him he didn't know who accompanied his wife to New York or the type of vehicle taken on the trip.

Young told Grafton that people he couldn't identify drove his wife to the bank to cash her disability checks but said he never cashed them. A teller at National City Bank in Charleroi, however, said she saw Young and his aunt at the bank but never Agnes.

Mary Santo, Agnes Young's sister, told Grafton that Young told her Agnes was in a New York mental institution. She told Grafton she had not seen her sister for about 10 years.

The agent also interviewed Steve Skvarek, Agnes' brother, who said he had not seen his sister at least since 1985. Whenever Skvarek asked about Agnes, Young told him she was unavailable.

On May 8, Grafton approached state police for help. A search of mental institutions in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York produced no trace of Agnes. But authorities did discover mental health records that indicated she had attempted suicide three times, according to a police affidavit.

State police went to Young's house Thursday with a search warrant and a cadaver dog that signaled troopers to check a dirt mound on the property. Police obtained a second search warrant yesterday to continue the search. That's when they found Young dead in the kitchen area.

Police said they plan to return to the property to continue searching for Agnes Young's body.

Staff writer Lynda Guydon Taylor contributed to this report.